Fire in the Water, Katniss Everdeen
by finock
Summary: Starts off when Catching Fire ends but with a different twist. Katniss Everdeen is now captured by the Capitol and is being tortured. Rated M for torture & stuff. (So I had this crazy idea ever since I finished reading Mockingjay & I know that I'm not the only one that's thought of this. I still have a million & one ideas so please don't judge until I completely finish, enjoy!)
1. Fire in the Water

"Rise and shine!" A great splash of water drenched the unconscious girl. Water filled the small spaced room as another bucket of iced water was flung her direction. A loud gasp slipped from her lips as she immediately sat up. The men at the door roared with laughter, muttering words between themselves as they shut the metal door. The girl scarcely glanced around her cramped room. There was no sunlight; windowless. But, just enough space for her to curl on the ground. _There goes my escape plan_, she thought. She leaned her head back on the wall, taking small but even breaths.

"_Breathe, Katniss." Nine year old, Katniss Everdeen gripped onto the nearest branch while she hyperventilated. Her father stood close by and begun a routine of inhaling and exhaling deeply until Katniss caught on. _

"_I… can-. " The child began but her father was quick. His hand was placed on her small back and applied pressure onto her until she knelt forward. _

"_Focus on the ground. Notice the stillness of the dirt, the color, the roughness that it carries. Focus on that, Katniss." The voice of her father always remained the same; steady. Katniss concentrated on her father's instructions until the rhythm of her heart thumped regularly. A minute passed until Katniss carried enough strength to ask her next question._

"_How… how do you do it?" _

"_Do what, Kat?" Not one could pull off that nickname but there was smoothness in her father's voice when he said it. _

"_That. Be so… calm." Her fingertips curled onto the ground and felt the warm sand slip into her nails. Usually Katniss attempted to keep her game face on whenever her father brought her to the woods. But that hope was cut short when a wolf pranced over her smallish figure. So much for showing her father that she was brave. _

"_The trick, Kat, is to believe that anything that frightens you is more terrified of you than you could ever imagine." Katniss finally glanced up and gave her father a puzzled face. _

"_I don't understand" _

"_Why do you think the wolf attacked you?" Her father smiled and slowly sat next to his daughter. _

"_Because animals are territorial, you told me so." It was one of her first lessons that she was given when she first stepped into the woods. _

"_That's true. Very good," Her father nodded at her response. "But, this was a lone wolf. Usually these particular animals travel in packs and this one was far from home. Maybe he was looking for food, shelter, a mate. Whatever the matter was is this, he was alone. But he saw you, an unknown creature that roamed into his forest. He didn't know what you were or if you were a threat. So how did he respond?" He stayed silent for a while and waited for Katniss' answer. _

"_He attacked?" She could never predict if her answer was the right one when it came to her father. _

"_Yes, out of panic. And that's how Panem will always look at someone who's different. The key is not to let fear win. You'll have to overcome the emotion and know that you're in control of the situation. Agreed?" Now she didn't always believe that her father was right but his words always gave her a certain comfort that she wanted to believe in his words. Nine year old Katniss nodded happily to her father. _

Katniss brought her knees up towards her chest and she looked forward to the metal door. These peacekeepers weren't afraid of her. They were afraid of her weapon that she had no chance in getting. _Bet you didn't think about this one, Dad_. She thought as she shut her eyes. She had to try to remember the last thing that happened. How did she get here? Where was she? How long has she been here?

A flash of District 12 appeared along with short images of Prim, Gale, her mother, and Peeta. Peeta. The Games. _No_._ No_. All the actions she made in the arena were to save Peeta. This was a mistake. She shouldn't be here. She should be dead along with the other tributes. If she was kept as a prisoner did that mean that so was Peeta?

"Peeta," she whispered. "Peeta" Her eyes quickly opened as she stood up. Where was Peeta? Did they capture him too? Did he get away from the other tributes? Did he win the Games? Was he slaughtered in the way to save her? The questions multiplied through each giving second. She began to pound on the metal door while she shouted Peeta's name in unison.

"Where's Peeta?! Peeta! Please!" The longer she yelled the weaker her voice got. Minutes turned into hours until a voice interrupted her own.

"Open" One of the peacekeepers mumbled through the other side of the door. Here was her moment. A chance to escape. After all, how hard was it to get through a couple of peacekeepers? She won the first Games. The door slowly began to open and Katniss almost flung against the gap before to peacekeepers leaped forward and grabbed her from each arm.

"Where's Peeta?! Tell m-" The wind was knocked out of her lungs when a peacekeeper punched her stomach. She inhaled deeply before another strike hit her gut. Her body hunched as two peacekeepers gripped her from each arm and dragged her down the hallway. Katniss kept her eyes glued onto the floor and allowed the men take her anywhere. A few minutes passed and they finally arrived to their destination.

Katniss was strapped onto a machine in the middle of the room, unable to move but a single inch. Not a single noise was heard but the fiddle of the peacekeeper checking for any mistakes on the machine. Finally he stepped back and gave the other one a nod. Katniss frowned but the confusion disappeared when a zap of electricity wiggled through her body.

"_OW_!" _Young Katniss rubbed her fingers immediately after touching the electric fence. The day was long and unfortunately the Everdeen's were stuck in the forest until the power turned off. _

"_I told you that it would still be on, Kat." Her father waited patiently on a rock as he skinned the deceased squirrel. _

"_I know. I just want to go home." The ten year old sighed. _

"_I've already showed you how the fence works. You should remember." He eyes never left the work on his hands as he talked. _

"_But it's hard. I can't hear a single thing." She looked at the fence and back at her father, "Dad?" She figured that he would have stood up to fix the problem but he continued to skin their meal. _

"_You know how." He said calmly. _

_Katniss slowly pressed her ear closer to the fence and shut her eyes. She tried to ignore the noises from the forest and focus on the quiet hum that scurried through the fence but heard nothing. 'Finally', she thought. She smiled and placed her entire hand against the fence when a sudden shock ran through her. The pain slowly rose within seconds until a scream finally escaped her lips. _

The screaming only got louder. How long has she been screaming for? Two minutes? Ten? An hour? Katniss' head hung once the power stopped. Each muscle in her body tensed and her fingers shook uncontrollably. The peacekeepers finally moved away but only to open a door. Footsteps slowly approached the fallen mockingjay.

"Miss Everdeen, we meet again." The smell of blood filled her nose when her eyes met the President.


	2. Scream

"I assume she can hear me." The President looked back at one of his Peacekeepers to only find an approval nod.

She could hear him alright but the strain in her throat blocked her from making a single peep.

"Fantastic!" Snow clapped his hands happily as he roamed around the room, beaming at the toil his workers accomplished. "Just fabulous." Another pleased comment slipped from his venom mouth. "Is she able to move?" The President continued asking his bleak questions until he suddenly stopped.

Katniss wiggled her index finger which happened to be the only part of her that could move.

_"Try again" Katniss' father instructed her. She had been laying on the ground for a few minutes now and hadn't been able to gain full control of her body. _

_But the tears in her eyes only filled when an after zap ran through her tiny hand._

_"Katniss, I need you to try. Try, honey." The image of her fathers worried face was the first thing Katniss remembered after she gripped the electric fence. _

_The numbing of her muscles made it impossible for her to wiggle anything but her father was persistent and repeated the same instructions to her. Time slowly ticked on and her father still continued on. _

_"Can you talk?" He asked. Katniss said nothing in fear that she could cry or scared that her throat wouldn't work anymore. _

_"Can you move any of your fingers for me?" _

_Katniss' eyes glanced over to her hands to only watch how they failed her just like the rest of her form did. _

_"Kat, I'm going to need you to ask your brain to move your fingers. You could do it, come on. Tell your brain to move your fingers."_

_She closed her eyes and repeated her fathers words until her index finger slowly followed along to the rhythm. 'Tell my brain to move my fingers'. _

_"You did it! Great job, Kat!" Her father clapped and even chuckled with relief. "I know you're afraid, Kat. But the pain is all going to fade in a few minutes. Right now your muscles have tightened but you're going to have to listen to me if you want to get through this. Alright?" Katniss moved her index finger to signal yes. _

_Together they made the pain cease. Her father gave Katniss a few tricks on how to ignore the pain by pointing at random objects in the forest and giving a few interesting facts about the item. Finally she was able to mumble a few words and stumble on their way home until her mother cured her a bit more. _

"Miss Everdeen, are you listening?" The President interrupted Katniss train of thought. Her eyes glanced from the floor onto the wicked mans eyes. A knot in the back of her throat formed when her spit suddenly splattered against his cheerful face.

A peacekeeper rushed to pull Snow away and clean the saliva off his face while the other rushed towards Katniss and hit her stomach.

"Give her another!" A touch of rage finally touched Snow's voice when he shoved the peacekeeper from his touch.

Not a minute later Katniss felt another zap scurry through and heard her scream again. Her fingers extended to reach or grip for any support but fell blank. The zap stopped to only feel it within five seconds apart from the other.

"Enough" Snow said. Katniss' head hung along with her hands. Her breaths were heavy as she tried to gain consciousness.

"All of this should be less painful if you just worked with us, Miss Everdeen" Snow placed his hands on the other while he watched the fallen tribute.

Katniss mumbled a few words but silent enough that no one understood her.

"Sorry?" He leaned further in to listen and she mumbled the second time.

"Sorry, I'm having trouble understanding you." And she mumbled the third time.

"Just kill me already" Like she was supposed to die in the Quarter Quell. He might as well get it over with. She already had her peace with death.

"Why would I do that?" He seemed puzzled. "No, no, no. Well you will die, don't get me wrong, Miss Everdeen. Just not today. No, I have another idea for you. A solution if you will."

Katniss kept her eyes locked on the presidents and watched how amused he was with his own private joke.

"This is merely just the first stage of your torment. I suppose that there's no damage in telling you now. You, Miss Everdeen, have caused a huge dent to our government. Districts rebelled, people question their command, tributes joined together, no, no. The harm you did in the past year alone was hectic enough." Snow walked around the room as he rambled on. "I didn't hesitate when I saw that look in your eye. That look that showed promise. Whether it was to save that lover boy of yours or to destroy the arena. We swept you up immediately along with others."

'_Others_?'

"Oth'rs?" Katniss found her voice. "Where's 'eeta?" The crack in her tone made it appear weak but she was regaining strength. "What have you done to Peeta?!" There it was, she found it. "Tell me what you did to Peeta!" She didn't care much for the rest of the tributes that were with her in the arena.

The peacekeeper reached for the button again but Snow raised his hand to stop him.

"So you _do_ care for the boy? Interesting. I'll keep that in mind." He asked with a smile. "Gentlemen, if you would be so kind to show the_ Mockingjay_ back to her cell. We're done for the day." Snow bowed his head towards Katniss and left with grin.

The men untied her from the machine to only drag her back through the hallways until they reached the smallish room. They threw her in without a carefulness and locked the doors once they were closed.

Katniss curled onto the floor and stared at the wall while the questions rushed through her head once again. Whatever Snow was planning, this was only the beginning. He wouldn't kill her. He would find the perfect moment and place to do it.

Just as she closed her eyes to rest she heard a noise come from the walls.

"Hello?" Her voice croaked but nothing responded. "Hello?" She repeated.

"Hello?" A familiar voice whispered back.

"Finnick?"

"Katniss?" He asked back.

The first smile on her lips appeared. She wasn't alone.


End file.
